15-453 Formal Languages, Automata, and Computation
Lecture 2: Finite Automata

This lecture will formally introduce finite automata as the simplest model of computation -- one that allows for only finite amount of memory. Viewing the computation as a language problem, we will define what it means for a (deterministic) finite automata to 'recognize' a language, and consider some properties of the class of languages recognized by these automata. Finally, we will introduce the concept of non-determinism and extend the definitions to non-deterministic finite automata.

This lecture prepared and delivered by Aleks Nanevski.


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fp@cs
Frank Pfenning